Still having to pinch herself, in order to make sure she wasn’t dreaming Todd’s reappearance, Jenny nodded. She stepped away from the garage door as the electric hum and rumble of the power door opener started up. After the slow ascent of the door, Joe pulled his car inside and killed the engine. Jenny watched from the short staircase that led to the house proper as he and John Crowley climbed out of the car. For just a second, she thought that Crowley had noticed her, his eyes seemed to stop right on her body as he looked around, but then he turned to more of Joe’s inane conversation.
Joe seemed to think Crowley’s opinion was of the utmost importance on something to do with Mark, curiosity aroused, she listened. “I just need to know that he doesn’t hold a grudge, does that make sense to you John?”
Crowley turned his head entirely from her, but it was too far for her to charge the man still ten feet away, she felt certain Joe would call out a warning if she came flying towards them with a sharp knife in her hands. The wooden handle was doing a fine job of absorbing her nervous perspiration. She shifted her grip on the knife and flinched when cold light danced across the blade’s surface. Neither of them appeared to notice. “Joe, if Mark held a grudge against you, I think you’d know by now. You’ve got a great son and a wife that obviously loves you. Relax a little. Don’t always act like happiness is a bad thing. Sure, now and then you might wish for something better in this world, hell, you might even wish that you’d married someone else, but life is what you make of it and you are what life makes of you. Sometimes the best things in the world seem like they’re already in someone else’s hands.”
Jenny watched, trying to ignore the words that Crowley was speaking. She could not, it was almost as if he was talking to her, instead of talking to Joe. From the look of puzzlement on Joe’s face, she half suspected he was talking to her.
Crowley patiently continued, in the voice of a marriage counselor. “Let me give you an example; Mark’s real dad took off, right? Along comes Joe Howell, maybe not a perfect guy, but certainly not a knife wielding maniac and he falls in love with Mark’s mom and he marries her. Well, nobody explained in advance that he was going to be taking on a kid as well.” He stopped Joe’s protest as they started on the stairs. Joe obviously wanted to explain that he had known about Mark before the wedding. “Let me finish, Joe, then you can point out the bad parts in my argument. Okay?” Joe Nodded reluctantly as they started towards the doorway above. They walked right past Jenny, she didn’t attack. She wanted to hear the end of Jonathan’s argument.
“I realize you knew about Mark, maybe you’d even gone to a couple of movies or whatever with the kid, but knowing something with your head isn’t the same as knowing something with your heart.” Crowley stopped them both at the top of the stairs, Jenny stayed put, knowing that she would never get a better chance at Crowley. “Jenny might very well still be in love with Mark’s dad, but she’s not with him. Granted, he took off and left her alone with Mark, but she could just as easily have gotten an abortion and gone on seeing the guy. Maybe if she had, he’d have stuck around. Maybe he even promised her he’d be back someday and she held on to that promise. But she married you. Maybe a good part of the marriage idea came from wanting a father for her son, maybe she felt the influence would do him good.”
Crowley leaned in close to Joe then, looking like he was about to tell him the most important secret that Joe could ever hope to hear. “I think that maybe she did marry you for those reasons. Maybe she was waiting for her lover-boy to come running back into her life so she could have him and Mark and leave you behind. But if she was, that was a long time ago. By your own admission, she makes plenty of money as an illustrator. She could have left you a long time back and still made a good enough living to keep her son happy. By your own admission, you never took enough time with Mark when he was younger. Jenny’s not a stupid woman, if she was, you’d never have married her. Do you think she would have stuck with someone who was wrong for her only son if she didn’t have to?”
Crowley stared into Joe’s uncertain eyes and slowly shook his head. Joe seemed to find returning the shake of his head necessary. Crowley’s smile grew larger, as Jenny found herself shaking her head. “That’s right. she would have left a long time ago if she didn’t feel you were the right one for Mark, or if she didn’t love you. Hell, at Mark’s present age, she could dump you like a sack of garbage without it having any real effect on the boy.
“She could maybe even find her old boyfriend and start all over, because he wouldn’t have to worry about the hard part of raising a son. In his eyes all of this would be perfect. You did the hard work and she did the hard work and all he had to do was wait for the worst of it to be over. But what if she got pregnant again? Do you think that bastard would wait around for her? Hell No! He’d be gone for fifteen years in a heartbeat!
“And if Jenny was stupid enough to divorce you over a loser like that, then she’d deserve the loneliness she’d get for her troubles. Wouldn’t she?” Joe nodded, whatever doubts he’d been having apparently solved. “There. Only a woman of monumental stupidity would wait for a man all of her life after that man had abandoned her. If Jenny didn’t love you, and if Jenny didn’t know that you were the best thing for Mark, she’d have split a long time ago. And if Jenny is smart enough to realize that you’re the best thing that ever happened to her and her son, then your fears are pointless.”
Crowley opened the door and ushered Joe into his own kitchen. The shockingly wise expression on his face winning Joe over to his side. Jenny reeled in confusion, wondering if maybe she was about to make a horrible mistake by killing Crowley. How could she hope to make Joe forgive her? Above her, blocking the light from finding the spot in the unfinished wall where she hid, Crowley finished his argument. “If you’re worried about what Mark is thinking of you, talk to him. Ask him how he feels and tell him that you realize you made a horrible mistake. Ask him to forgive you. If he says no, then that’s something you’ll have to live with. But, if he says yes, you can work on making up for a lot of lost time. Personally, I think he’ll say yes. Mark’s a good kid. One of the best it’s been my pleasure to meet.” There was an element of sadness in his voice that chilled Jennifer Howell. A tone in his voice that made him seem to regret that one of the best kids he’d ever met was soon to be gone from his life for all time. Jenny bit her lip, praying that she was hearing something in his voice incorrectly.
“Listen, Joe, you go inside, I think I left my wallet in the car. I’ll be right with you.” She heard Joe mumble something, his voice too choked to speak properly. From where she was, Jenny could see Crowley’s wallet in his right back pocket. The door above her closed and she heard Crowley’s soft tread coming back down the stairs.
Jenny tried to force her body even further back into her cubbyhole. It was no good, Crowley sat to the right of her next to where she hid, his tail bone resting lightly on a stair parallel to her trembling hands. He stared straight ahead, not looking towards Jenny at all. She knew with a certain sickening dread, that he was aware of both her and the weapon she was holding.
She watched as he lifted one hand to his face and rested his chin in the palm of that hand. Then, ever so casually, he held out his free hand to take the knife from her. Crying silent tears, she gave the weapon over. He placed it on the far side of his body, still staring into the darkened garage below.
Crowley spoke softly, words laced with cold hatred and disgust.”I don’t know how long you’re lover over there has been back,” he whispered. “I don’t even care. But I want you to dry your eyes and I want you to think about what I said.” Jenny started to cry in earnest, small hiccupping sounds coming from her throat and grief twisting her lovely face into a fearful mask.
In the shadows below, she heard the stirring of something moving slowly. It didn’t sound human by the way it scraped the floor with its feet. She could hear the bellows of its powerful lungs sucking in air. In the shadows, something hissed her name, one part g
rief and four parts rage. Jenny found herself remembering the only fight she ever had with Todd, long years ago. He had beaten her with balled fists on that occasion. She remembered that the fight had started because of something she had said. Something about wanting him to be there forever. When she had mentioned to him the idea of getting an abortion so that they could be together. After he had slapped her senseless, he had made love to her, gently but urgently, telling her that he would be back when the time was right.
Long before that, when they had first started dating, he’d promised to be with her forever. Crowley’s words were ripping through a dream she had built for herself half a life time ago. She had been dreaming of Todd being back since the day he had left; she had used that dream as armor against everything that went wrong in her life. Now Jennifer Gallagher Howell realized that the same dream had protected her from everything that had gone right in her life as well.
Crowley gently placed a hand on her face and she held it there closely. Her tears fell freely and burned away the armor she had donned so long ago. She couldn’t tell how long they stayed that way, with Crowley giving her strength as Todd hissed her name coldly from the shadows. Finally, he pulled his hand away and wiped at her tear-stained cheeks.
“Now’s the time, Jenny. Joe or Todd. Make up your mind. Pick one and go. Do it now.”
Jenny found she really didn’t have to think very hard about her decision; she turned her head away from the past and charged up the stairs. Behind her she heard the anguished scream of her lover, as she slammed the door.
Joe was dozing on the couch in the living room, his soft snores undisturbed as she turned on the light to hold the nights approaching darkness at bay. Jenny slipped her own body next to his on the sofa, the area was small, but Joe’s arms pulled her close, enclosing her in his warmth. She drifted to sleep with tears still in her eyes, as the battle for her soul raged on below.
3
Crowley reminded himself that he had seen worse, as the Todd-thing came out of the shadows. He forced himself to remember horrors he would rather have forgotten, as the brute came forward. One look was wasted on the knife next to him, it would never pierce the hide on the beast.
The Todd-thing spoke through lips plated in thick scales. “You little fuck! You ruined everything! Jenny was Mine!” With the last words, he stepped into the light of the only bulb that was active in the garage. Crowley was right, he had seen worse. But not much worse. The Todd-thing’s body was supported by thick powerful legs and by arms as wide as Crowley’s torso. The arms were long, longer than a Gorilla’s, and the whole body was covered with thick green-gray hide, folding over on itself like the hide of a rhino. Bristling patches of fur ran across the body in the same areas where it could cover a man’s, the fur was black in some places and gray in others. In a voice thick with hatred, the Todd thing spoke again. “I waited so long, how could you do this to me?” To Crowley, it sounded as petulant as a three year old boy. Its tail lashed out behind the massive body, sweeping boxes of transmission fluid and oil across the length of the garage. Crowley didn’t much like the look of the spiked ridges that sprouted from the tail.
They stared at each other for a long moment, both wondering who would make the first move. Crowley had time to study the low-slung jaw that looked quite capable of biting his head off. Thrusting tusks gleamed wetly in the yellow light from the bulb above its head. He looked past the grinning maw and past even the bat-like slits the beast called a nose, to the burning eyes hidden under its heavy brow. The eyes were as blue as the evening sky, just like the eyes of the creature’s son.
Crowley started to smile and a laugh came from deep within him, lifting outward from his body in waves of malevolence. He stared the Todd-thing deep in the eyes as growing recognition bloomed in those orbs. Somehow, the foolish beast had supposed it could gain the upper hand.
The Todd-thing knew fear as the Hunter stepped forward, shedding its guise of humanity. Those of the Folk who comprised the Todd-thing shrieked in terror as Crowley stepped under the pool of light They had hastily vacated. Too late, the Todd-thing remembered why it was that it had feared the Hunter. The sound of its breaking bones was buried beneath the shrieking maddening laughter of Jonathan Crowley. The Todd-thing’s attempts at escape were futile, the Hunter batted it about as if it were the smallest of children and he a brutal adult who felt it needed severe discipline.
The Todd-thing was long dead before the laughter broke and fell into sobs of self-disgust. Crowley worked quickly to dispose of the remains.
Above him, in the house proper, Jenny and Joe found escape from the nightmares that had haunted their brief sleep. They smiled quickly and got to work on dinner at the same time that Jonathan Crowley came up the stairs smiling sheepishly and explaining that his wallet had been better hidden than he had thought. Joe made coffee while Jenny silently thanked her savior for what he had done.
Crowley smiled affably while they sipped at the warm brew, waiting for Mark to come home. In Crowley’s eyes, this was turning out to be a fine day indeed.
4
Rick Lewis sat in the Summitville County Jail’s single holding cell until after the sun had set. Then Stacy took pity on him and let him go. He wasn’t very grateful, but he thanked her anyway. His right shoulder burned from where she had wrenched it behind his back earlier and his scraped knees had become a source of constant annoyance. None of those scrapes and injuries mattered the least in comparison to the throbbing of his head.
He was afraid, as afraid as he had ever been in his life. Rick Lewis had been visited by a ghost in his sleep, he was certain of that. Chuck Hanson had looked down on him while he was asleep and gently awakened him, stopping his cries of fear with a reproachful look. When Hanson told him to get up, he did, convinced that it was all just a dream by the lack of aches and pains in his body. Hanson smiled, as if reading his mind and pointed back to the slumbering form of his own body on the cot behind him. As much as Rick wanted to talk, no words would go past his lips.
Against his better judgment, he followed Hanson as the dead man walked away. He knew it was impossible to walk through walls and doors and trees and even the ground, but he did just that, with Hanson leading the way. Rick didn’t question this ability, nor did he wonder why they were walking into the woods; he knew that patience would answer all of his questions in the long run. He also suspected that he would not like the explanations.
Eventually they came to a spot in the woods where the trees forced themselves away from what was growing in the woods, seemingly ashamed of what they had growing in their midst. It appeared to be a stone, but Rick was not fooled by the image, Stones do not have heartbeats. The thing pulsed strongly with a rhythmic beat all its own, expanding and contracting and above all else, growing. Even to Rick’s naked eye, it could be seen to be growing. Soon it would tower over the trees, soon you would be able to see it from Summitville proper.
This isn’t the first time, Rick. The voice in his head was Chuck’s and Rick felt himself shiver, trying to make himself believe that it was only a dream, trying to remember that Chuck was dead. Chuck shook his head sadly, lit a spectral cigarette with ghostly hands. It’s more than a dream and yes, I’m still dead. Get used to it. Rick. The world is moving on again.
Rick tried to block the sounds of Hanson’s voice with his hands, but to no avail. the sounds didn’t bother with his ears, they went straight into his head. Don’t turn away from me Rick, I need your help. There was a long silence in his dream haunting and then Chuck added the one word he could not resist, the one word Chuck almost never bothered with. Please.
“What the hell can I do! I don’t know how to help you, Chuck. Goddamnit, man, what the hell am I supposed to do!” The frustration simply could not hide itself any longer, a years worth of bitterness spilled from his mouth, he raged at the specter before him, wanting nothing more than to be left alone by the ghosts of his own past. He screamed and ranted, throwing insults at his friend’s memory, throwi
ng fits at the friend who had dared to die on him.
Through it all, Chuck Hanson stood still, looking sadly at the man he loved as if he were a brother, the only man from other than Summitville that he had ever liked. Ever loved. I’m sorry, Rick. I couldn’t stay. Lord knows I didn’t want to end up like this. Please, help me be free. I’ll tell you all I can, but you’ve got to help me. Summitville was all I ever had, I can’t stand to see it die this way.
Rick stared long and hard at his dead friend, finally agreeing to help, knowing that he would regret the assistance. “So, tell me what to do.”
Chuck Hanson smiled, it was a smile of rare beauty for the man, making him look as he had in life, back in college, when he could pretend that the world was still his for the grabbing. Watch closely, Rick, I only have the strength to do this once…
5
The world shifted, changed and emptied of so much that had made it familiar. It may have only been a dream, but it was a very real dream, more real than some parts of Rick’s life had ever been. The land was arid, dusty in a way that even the driest sections of the Sahara shouldn’t be. There was no sign of life to be found. There were no trees, there was not even a hollow spot in the ground, where the Overtree should be. Instead, there was a mountain. Still, Rick new instinctively that he stood on the same soils as he had a moment before, perhaps a thousand millennia before Man would come to walk on the earth.
From above him in the night’s skies, he could see the light of a falling star. There, far away but growing closer. The oddest light he had ever seen. Whatever it was, he expected it to strike the ground at any moment, he cringed and mentally prepared himself for death. he heard Chuck Hanson’s barrel-chested laugh from behind him. Shit, Rick. I’m here to show you, not kill you. You’re right in a way, this is only a dream. It’s just a dream that I made you have. Now open your eyes and look.
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